Zoom app usage explodes in India

Zoom has seen a huge increase in downloads in India since quarantines and lockdowns were imposed to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The app is not only being used by millions for work but also social gatherings, yoga classes, book clubs, and entertainment concerts.

On Monday, Zoom surged to become the No. 1 app in India on Google Playstore as the 9-year-old platform has emerged as the go-to service for official meetings and informal gatherings.

BENGALURU: Anujan Krishnamoorthy, who heads affinity sales at a Mumbai-based insurance company, has seen his use of the Zoom app go up to almost 3 hours a day for work from nil a month back.

The insurance professional uses the video-conferencing app for team communication, meetings and such since the government imposed social distancing restrictions. “We even dress up in suits and ties for client meetings,” he said.

Zoom has seen a huge increase in downloads in India since quarantines and lockdowns were imposed to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The app is not only being used by millions for work but also social gatherings, yoga classes, book clubs, and entertainment concerts.

On Monday, Zoom surged to become the No. 1 app in India on Google Playstore as the 9-year-old platform has emerged as the go-to service for official meetings and informal gatherings.

According to Apptopia, which monitors app downloads, the daily downloads for Zoom have increased from around 1,70,000 in the middle of February to nearly 2.5 million in late March. Rivals Tencent Conference, WeChat Work, Microsoft Teams and Slack have also seen a manifold increase in downloads since the onset of coronavirus globally.

While such apps attracted 1.4 million new users across the App Store and Google Play in the first week of January, that figure jumped to a record 6.7 million in the first week of March, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.